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Sunday, September 27, 2015

Good Week In Durango

Although we only planned to spend 2 or 3 nights at La Plata County Fairgrounds in Durango, CO, we ended up extending and stayed 6 nights. It isn’t that the RV park is anything special, in fact far from it, but we loved the location and ability to walk and ride our bikes just about everywhere. We only drove the car once the entire time we were here because we needed to do a major grocery run.

The RV lot is next to the busy maintenance building and across from the horse arena.

At least the sites are very wide so you’re not right on top of the neighbors.

The Animas River trail, which starts directly behind the fairgrounds, runs for 7 paved miles along the river. We rode the entire trail a couple times, a very pleasant and scenic ride.

One of the many bridges we crossed on the trail.

If you don’t mind walking it’s about a mile and a half to downtown, a half mile to a very nice City Market, and a Walgreen’s is right across the road, where we got flu shots and a shingles vaccine for me. We also walked downtown for dinner a couple times and to the Saturday farmer’s market.

We always like cities with rivers running through them.

Jim was looking through his health insurance benefits last week and noticed it included membership to Silver Sneakers. I guess if he saw this last year when he first got his Medicare supplement he didn’t realize what it was, but it gives him free access to fitness centers all across the country. Just so happens the Durango Recreation Center, right next door to the fairgrounds, is on the list, so we visited it three times this past week.

What a wonderful complex! State of the art fitness equipment, 2 swimming pools, one just for children, a climbing wall, racquetball courts, exercise classes, air hockey, pool and ping pong tables. After working out we played some serious ping pong and air hockey. I let Jim win, of course. It cost me $4.50 per visit, a real bargain ($6 if you’re under 60).

We did a lot of hiking when we visited Durango in 2012, so this time we didn’t go for a single hike the entire week, which was a nice change of pace. We’ve decided Durango would be a great place to live, but so do a lot of other people, which translates into very high housing prices.

21 comments:

Durango's location is perfect… up against mountains yet only 7 hours drive from the Arizona deserts for convenient winter getaways. Mid-sized College towns make a good place to land, you know there will be breweries and good food… entertainment, amenities. But I can't see you guys coming off the Fulltime road anytime soon :))

We, too, have medicare and Silver Sneakers rights. I didn't realize we could use it to just drop in. Figured we would have to sign up when we were in one place for a long time. We will have to look into it the next summer. Thanks.

I forgot to mention it is necessary to make a reservation at the fairgrounds. But we called the morning we wanted to go and were able to get a site and extend after we were there a few days. One night there were only two of us but it was full most nights, which is to be expected with only 6 sites. And there is no sewer or dump but you can dump for free just a few miles away at the sewage treatment plant.

Those are the spots I like the best too where I can walk or bike to lots of things and don't have to drive my car. Love the look of that river. How nice to be so near it. Silver Sneakers sounds great. One of the things I most miss about being on the road is not having access to yoga classes or weight machines or weights. I don't seem to be able to make myself use those exercise bands I brought with me.